The Myth of Cage-Free and Free-Range Chickens

Companies flood their packaging with words that will sell. These include organic, no hormones, non-GMO, free-range, cage-free, and so many more. Unfortunately, dishonesty in advertising is a common phenomenon that has been around forever.

(For example, if any egg carton says "no hormones"— ALL eggs legally have no added hormones. Companies add this label to influence consumers to buy since most people don't know this.)

And while we can possibly try purchasing chicken and eggs from more “ethical” sources, unfortunately, this represents only around 1% of the poultry people actually consume. In fact, over 98% of chickens produced for consumption in the United States are raised in factory farms, living in horrid conditions and existing in misery.

These are the exact factory farms in which they can label their chickens and eggs as “cage-free” of “free-range”. The regulations around these terms are weak because they can easily be manipulated by the producers themselves.

Factory farms for meat chickens are completely separate from factory farms for egg-laying chickens because they actually use different selectively bred types of chickens for each operation. In the egg industry, male chicks that are born are immediately deemed useless. They are killed by being sent to a meat grinder and ground up alive. And then the female chicks that are kept alive are only kept until they are no longer considered “useful” for production and are then killed and discarded (PETA).

Whether it is an egg-laying farm, a meat-producing farm, cage-free, or free-range, thousands and thousands of chickens are still harmed and killed.

Read our article on chicken factory farms to learn more.

So What Does Cage-Free Mean?

You may believe cage-free means the chickens and turkeys are frolicking in a field, but unfortunately there are no regulations around these labels and industries often manipulate the standards or consumer perceptions.

Cage-free simply means the chickens are not kept long-term in cages.

This label does not enforce much else regarding the treatment or living conditions. For example, eggs and chickens that are labeled cage-free are “still typically denied access to the outdoors, [subjected] to painful practices like debeaking, and end in slaughter when production declines.” (Farm Sanctuary). PETA confirms this as well, stating that : “cage-free” hens are confined to cramped, artificially lit barns, with tens of thousands of other birds, with no access to outdoor space" (PETA).

Image featured on PETAs website. It shows the truth of a cage-free chicken farm: the chickens are still born indoors, mass confined, and packed together in a sunless and greenless environment.

In 2022, it was estimated that about 34% of chickens were cage-free layer hens in the United States. The United Egg Producers' (UEP) certified cage-free requirements allow for "one hen per 1 square foot in indoor housing systems" with access to vertical space. According to PETA, these standards are used by about 85% of the cage-free egg farms (PETA).

What Does Free-Range Mean?

Free-range is yet another misleading label that we read on chicken and egg products in stores. It is often used to make consumers think the chickens are freely roaming outdoors.

Free-range simply means producers must provide the chickens some access to the outdoors.

There are often no meaningful requirements regarding how long the birds are allowed outside, how often they are let out, or even the condition of the outdoor space itself (World Animal Protection). Free-range also means that chickens must “have unlimited access to food, water, and access to the outdoors during their egg-laying cycle” (Animal Legal Defense Fund).

Additionally, according to the USDA, the meat qualifies as “free-range” if the producers attest that the animals have continuous access to the outdoors for more than 50 percent of their lives (Sentient Media). However, it has been documented on numerous occasions that this can mean the birds technically have outdoor access, but only through a small opening that many chickens never even find. In other cases, the outdoor area almost entirely concrete rather than a natural environment.

Thankfully, the RSPCA (the United Kingdom's animal welfare organization) appears to have stricter requirements. They state that there can be "no more than 13 birds a square metre, be at least 56 days old before they are slaughtered and have continuous daytime access to open-air runs, with vegetation, for at least half their lifetime.” (The Guardian)

Is Free-Range and Cage-Free Really Better for the Chickens?

After reading this article, we hope you understand the answer is no.

The terms cage-free and free-range promise to the consumer the idea that the product they are purchasing is from a more ethical source, but in reality people are being made to feel less guilty about buying a product that is always cruel. While the birds are no longer fully confined to cages their entire life, they "still endure crowding, mutilations, injury, chronic stress, transport, and terrifying deaths". The chickens are still exclusively treated like an item of exploitation, valued only for the maximum amount of profit they can generate.

PETA states very clearly what needs to happen for meaningful change:

"Efforts should be intensified to study and implement effective methods of shifting our current food culture as well as strengthening access to and increasing the daily consumption of animal-free foods by making animal free options the default."

If you want to learn more on the cage-free systems, PETA has an interesting research document titled: "White Paper on The Failure of Cage-Free Housing Systems to Reduce Overall Hen Suffering". This research document has been one of the primary sources used for this article.